Chicago Bears General Manager Profile: Joe Schoen

The Chicago Bears search committee spent last weekend with the Buffalo Bills on their minds. After interviewing their offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, they also met with their assistant general manager Joe Schoen. Here is a profile on Schoen.

Ever since the Chicago Bears fired general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy on Black Monday last week, they’ve been busy interviewing candidates to replace them. They are running both job interviews concurrently, but there are reports that they want to hire a general manager first and get his input on the hiring of a head coach.

Last weekend, the Bears had a theme in their interviews. That theme was looking at Buffalo Bills employees. After the Bills destroyed the New England Patriots 47-17 on Saturday, the Bears interviewed Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll on Sunday. After that interview, they went ahead and interviewed Buffalo’s assistant general manager Joe Schoen as well.

Getting to know Schoen

Schoen has been with the Bills for five seasons. He is Buffalo’s general manager Brandon Beane’s right-hand man. The two collaborated to turn the Bills from perennial losers to Super Bowl contenders. Beane feels it is Schoen’s time to strike out on his own.

Though he’s only been with Buffalo for five seasons, his relationship with Beane goes back 20 years. He got his start as an intern when both were with the Carolina Panthers. Schoen worked there full-time and Beane has been his mentor.

This is how Schoen described his role with the Bills:

I work with the analytics department [and] I work with our personnel department, sometimes with football operations. I work with our communications [and] I touch a lot of different departments throughout the building … A lot of my background is the personnel, so watching film — pro, college draft prospects, free agency, the waiver wire — that’s a majority of my day.

In addition to working with Beane, Schoen also has ties with Hall of Famer Bill Parcells. When Parcells was the Miami Dolphins VP of football operations in 2008-2010 he hired Schoen to be a scout for the team. Schoen made an impression on the legend.

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Schoen very interested in the Bears job

There appears to be mutual interest between the Bears and Schoen. Many people consider the Bears’ openings to be among the most attractive available spots. While the Bears have struggled to win games over the past decade or so, they have some building blocks for future success. They have what many consider to be a franchise quarterback in Justin Fields. They also have other young talented players who could be keys to the rebuild — wide receiver Darnell Mooney, offensive linemen Teven Jenkins and Larry Borom, linebackers Roquan Smith and Trevis Gipson, and cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Thomas Graham Jr.

Additionally, the Bears will have over 30 free agents this offseason and another handful of players with buyouts. Whoever comes in as general manager will have an opportunity to rebuild quicker than expected. With that many open spots on the roster, the new general manager won’t be weighed down with many long-term contracts.

If the Bears indeed want to hire the general manager before they hire the head coach (which is a solid plan to follow since the general manager will work closely with the head coach) having Schoen gives Daboll an inside track. Since they already know each other they’ll be able to hit the ground running on rebuilding the roster.